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Posts tagged avoiding disaster
Bankruptcy Misconceptions
Jan 19th
Do you feel the hammer hanging over the head of your business' financial security?
There are so many misconceptions about bankruptcy that I thought it might be helpful to highlight a few. There were massive changes to the bankruptcy law back in 2005. Some people even came out of it believing that if you hadn’t filed by 2005 you never could! That’s how mixed up everything got.
I’m just going to highlight a few of the more common misperception here.
First, your house, car, and boat are not exempt from paying off the loan if they are listed in your bankruptcy filing. You’ll More >
10 Ways To Win Customer Loyalty
Dec 12th
Customers fear there'll be nothing but a skeleton left by the time their questions are answered.
It’s the peak of the holiday season. Most retail businesses make upward of 75% of their profit from black Friday to the end of the year. If your business isn’t raking in the dough right now, it might be because customers are frustrated and having a hard time getting what they want, be it products or service. Here are ten ways you can make it smooth sailing for customers to easily get what they want.
- Really fix the top ten complaints by customers. If you aren’t More >
Putting The Public Back In Public Relations
Dec 2nd
A good ad agency will make your brand newsworthy.
One thing that I’ve found extremely frustrating is how so many companies, both big and small, seem to think that the consumer is no longer important. For a short time after the economic downturn I was greeted, at almost every store I visited, with a hearty hello, and thank you for your business. That was very short-lived. Now it’s back to being ignored at the checkout counter, being talked down to by management, and having your complaints filed in the circular file.
A company’s first impression is just as important as an individual’s. More >
Tracking Down Important Information With A Phone Tracer
Nov 24th
You pull your slacks out of the wash machine and notice a bit of paper at the top of one of the pockets. Closer inspection shows a lump in the pocket. You pull the lump out an rack your brain trying to figure out what was on the paper. Suddenly you realize that it was the name and number of a possible investor in your new product line. You can remember their name and city, but that’s it.
Or maybe you got a call while you were on another line and couldn’t catch it. You don’t recognize the number, but you More >
What To Do With The Money You’ve Made
Nov 24th
Careful management of your savings will keep you from having to break the piggybank.
Once you’ve gotten past the initial financial trials of a new business, or maybe you had a winner from the start, what are you going to do with all the money you’ve made? For many people they’ll invest it back in their business. But how do you keep some of the money safe for personal use, for larger purchases like houses and cars, or retirement? If you’re managing your own investing, where is the best place to put it, CDs, IRAs or what?
The stock market is not More >
SWOT Before You Commit
Nov 20th
You’ve already done your business plan. It looks like a go. Before you commit to opening, think SWOT.
Your business has been open for some time. You’re looking at ways to help it grow. You’ve got a number of ideas on the board and are trying to decide which one is the most viable, think SWOT.
SWOT has become a buzzword in business these days. It takes the usual business plan or brainstorming meeting and gives it a different focus. SWOT stand for Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
Looking at threats can help you plan a proactive strategy.
Strengths and weaknesses focus on the More >
Seeing The World Around You Clearly
Oct 30th
Having extra glasses for your overseas business trip is a good idea.
On a recent flight I sat next to a man who travels frequently for his business. He was from Germany, but travels several times a year to various places around the world for meeting with their foreign manufacturing companies.
For those of us who wear glasses. Foreign travel can sometimes hold some concern. What are we going to do if we lose our glasses? What happens if they get scratched, broken, or stolen? How will I manage if I don’t have any glasses at all?
Being in a foreign country and More >
Where Would They Be Today?
Oct 25th
Do you know the laws governing doing business in China?
Sometimes it is fun to imagine where certain well-known people would be if they hadn’t done certain things. For instance, where would Bill Gates be today, if he hadn’t patented his inventions and had a crackerjack legal team to protect them? You know if you think about it, any large firm usually has at least one legal advisor, and really big companies will hire an entire firm to represent them. Sometimes they’ll even have an in-house legal department.
In this age, where many of us are single proprietors with an online presence More >
How People Remember You
Oct 24th
One of the most important things you do with a business is choose the logo. This is a key component in attracting customers or clients. This is often their first impression of you. Think of the logos of Nike or New Balance. Just by looking at the shoe you can identify who made it. Almost anyone can recognize the logos for most car companies, even while passing a car. See something you like? All you need to do is look at the front grill and you’ll see who made it. It can often be a fatal or near fatal blow More >
When The Digging Gets Tough
Oct 17th
Pipes laid clear with hydro-excavation. No chance of breakage!
Hopefully, at some point in time, you’ll need to expand your business. This could mean relocating to a larger building, but it might also mean remodeling or expanding your existing space.
Perfectly laid plans can be scrapped in a heartbeat when an important utility line is found in the wrong place. Or even worse you get into the middle of the expansion, hit a line and have a major crisis on your hands, as water, sewage, electricity, or cable services stop in a heartbeat. You could also have quite a large mess, and More >